ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 6, 1996 TAG: 9604080015
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
Prices plummet for Treasury bonds
NEW YORK - Treasury bond prices plunged and yields soared to more than seven-month highs Friday in a powerful market sell-off triggered by news of surprising employment strength in March.
The job stamina dashed remaining hopes among investors that a stunning gain in February was a fluke. With the economy looking brisk, investors doubt the Federal Reserve will lower short-term interest rates any time soon.
The price of the Treasury's benchmark 30-year bond closed down 1 27/32 points, or $18.44 per $1,000 in face value, in trading that ended at noon because of the Good Friday holiday.
The bond's yield, which moves in the opposite direction, jumped to 6.82 percent, its highest since closing at 6.91 percent on Aug. 23, 1995. The yield closed at 6.67 percent Thursday.
The strong employment report dampened hopes of an interest rate cut by the Fed to stimulate the economy.
``[It] pushes the Fed easing back further and further, if it occurs at all,'' said Charles Pradilla, chief investment strategist at Cowen & Co., a New York investment firm.
``If you push it further back, the next move'' could be an interest rate increase by the Fed, he said.
Bond investors generally embrace signs of interest rate cuts, since lower rates on new securities enhance the value of those already in circulation. Bonds pay a fixed rate of interest.
- Associated Press
Local cows make bovine who's who
The American Angus Association has included eight registered Angus cows owned by Lynn Brae Associates of Roanoke in the association's 1996 Pathfinder Report.
The report identifies superior Angus cows based on performance traits that are important to efficient beef production. Only 1,647 producer members of the association's 29,000 members are included in this year's report, the association said.
The report lists 6,298 individual cows.
- Staff report
Success is sweet for trucking firm
Howell's Motor Freight of Roanoke was featured in a cover story in the March 18 issue of Transport Topics, a national newspaper of the trucking industry.
Howell's, whose sales were $18.2 million last year, specializes as a candy and confectionery distributor. The company, which has 250 employees, 150 tractors and 280 trailers, operates terminals in Roanoke; Portsmouth; Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C.; and Clarksville, Ind.
"We're just what I call a little, quality, family-owned business," Harry Norris of Roanoke County, Howell's president, told the publication. Norris' father, C.E. Norris, bought the company, then a meat hauler, in 1957.
- Staff report
Kmart: Reject union proposals
DETROIT - Kmart Corp. urged its major shareholders to reject several union proposals that include a study on selling or merging the struggling discount retailer.
The Teamsters and the Union of Needletrades Industrial and Textile Employees made the proposals in a proxy solicitation filed last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The unions said the proposals are aimed at boosting Kmart's stock price by increasing board accountability. They also include appointing a union representative to the board and one-year terms for all directors.
The proposals will be voted on at Kmart's annual meeting May 21.
- Associated Press
Pesticide's use on apples banned
WASHINGTON - The maker of a widely used pesticide agreed to halt its use on apples and nine other fruits and vegetables because of data showing a higher cancer risk than previously thought.
The chemical propargite was being withdrawn for use on these fruits and vegetables as part of a voluntary agreement reached between regulators and Uniroyal Chemical Co. of Middlebury, Conn., the chemical's only producer.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced the ban Friday.
- Associated Press
Unused NBC tape kept out of suits
NEW YORK - NBC did not have to give lawyers in two civil cases unused videotape from a ``Dateline'' report on allegedly dangerous baby cradles, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Graco Children's Products Inc. was being sued by parents who said their infants died because a swinging baby cradle was defective.
The company sought the tape, saying plaintiffs had made inconsistent statements. It has already settled the suits out of court, but the appeals court ruled anyway. The decision was released Friday
- Associated Press
Bankruptcies
One bankruptcy with a business affiliation has been filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Western Virginia at Roanoke.
Clifton Ray Hodges of Christiansburg filed for liquidation with assets of $3,150 and liabilities of $12,207. He said he is self-employed in computer services.
- Staff report
Briefly ...
Two Western Virginia companies were awarded contracts by the Department of Defense this week:
Inland Motor of Radford won a $198,575 contract from the Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command in Warren, Mich., for mechanical power transmission equipment.
Cagas Precision & Research Corp. of Bedford won a $30,536 contract from Hill Air Force Base in Utah for an aircraft drag brace shaft.
- States News Service
LENGTH: Long : 115 linesby CNB